The communications infrastructures such as used in telecommunications networks may include buried fiber cables. These buried fiber cables require grounding for ensuring safe operation of the equipment and protection of maintenance personnel from voltages induced from lightning or power lines. Currently, buried fiber cables are grounded with manual connections to grounding rods through termination closures. For example, when a maintenance worker accesses fiber cables to perform tasks such as cable locating functions, the maintenance worker is expected to remove the grounding connector(s) manually before starting the tests. The maintenance worker then accesses the fibers, conducts the tests to locate the desired fiber cables, and places back the grounding connector into its proper position when the task is finished. However, the maintenance worker may forget to place the grounding connector back onto the fiber cable and leaves the fiber and any equipment attached to the fiber vulnerable to unintended voltages. In addition, this may create potentially a hazardous condition for maintenance personnel who may need to access the fiber lines at a future time, where the maintenance personnel are expecting the fiber cable to be grounded prior to performing various maintenance tasks.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus that enable an automatic grounding of fiber cables.